Every developer knows that they work more efficiently on a setup which suits them; the syntax highlighting, the font used in the IDE and the position or alignment of windows.

But should all of these factors harness your production rate when there are excellent tools online for Web Designers and Developers to work on-the-go? I've been researching and looking into ways which any business can expand their production rate, reduce costs and increase the overall quality of their products by using cloud applications.

Why make the transition?

Cloud Computing has excelled over the past years to the point where most people have access to some device with Internet connection 24/7, meaning there are more and more cloud applications appearing in the market allowing you to work whilst you're in motion or working away from home.

Not only does it give you the freedom to work on-the-go but it'll lower your costs. Typical pricing for Adobe Dreamweaver (for Web Developers) is steep whilst you can use online IDE's (Integrated Development Environment) that I'll cover below for just a small monthly cost. Of course, not all IDE's cost - Netbeans and Eclipse are fantastic, plugin extensive and best of all - free!

On-The-Fly Online & Cloud IDE's

Cloud9 IDE is renowned for being the best online IDE available as it comes fully loaded with features that you'd typically see on a professional developer's setup. It supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, XML, Java and many more. Cloud9 also provides a collaboration mechanism to work amongst other team members.

Compilr is an online compiler that works for every device regardless of the OS (Operating System) that your device is running. It supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby and a lot more!

ShiftEdit is a robust online IDE that lets you compile and run your code. It supports HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby.

CodeRunis a cross-platform IDE that allows you to develop, debug and deploy web applications within a browser window. It supports C#, .NET (3.5), PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Silverlight and many more. CodeRun also allows the integration and testing of SQL databases and Amazon SimpleDB connections.

Cloud IDE is a simple IDE which provides you with the basic features you'd expect to see. It supports collaborative editing allowing teams to work on a single project at the same time and the languages; HTML, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP and many more. Also known as eXo Cloud IDE is a collaborative editing solution that enables social coding. It allows direct development of applications, gadgets and mashups that can be deployed directly to a PaaS (Platform as a Service).

Dabblet is an interactive CSS playground and code sharing tool. It saves direct to Github gists and offers many shorthand methods and quick-tips for CSS editing.

jsFiddle is a playground for web developers to test online snippets of code, detect and isolate any bugs. It supports many typical frameworks such as jQuery or Django as well as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and others.

Webpop is a fully hosted CMS platform and IDE. It features contextual autocompletion, syntax highlighting, a flexible template engine that allows you to easily load dynamic content from the database using the PopTags template engine and gives you pre-processes and live reloading with zero setup required. It supports Server-side JavaScript that allows you to extend everything already available.

About the Author

From the small, to the large, Lewis has tackled and developed a vast selection of projects since he started developing over 8 years ago. Lewis has the ability to program in over 25 languages from the well-known; PHP, Java, C and Objective-C to the less well-known; RDFa, Sparql and Maude. For any queries regarding the realisation and development of your project, Lewis will be your primary contact. Outside of work, Lewis has a passion for films, music and he’s also a bit of a Disney geek.